1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compressor, and, more particularly, to a frame unit included in a compressor to mount various internal components of the compressor thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a compressor, that constitutes the refrigerating cycle of a refrigerator, air conditioner, or the like, conventionally comprises a compressing unit to compress a refrigerant, a drive unit to provide power required to compress the refrigerant, and a hermetic casing to hermetically seal the compressing unit and drive unit. The hermetic casing is provided at one side thereof with a suction pipe to guide the refrigerant from an external supply source into the hermetic casing, and at the other side thereof with a discharge pipe to discharge the refrigerant, that was compressed via the compressing unit, to the outside of the hermetic casing.
The compressing unit includes a cylinder block mounted in the upper region of the hermetic casing and internally defining a compression chamber, and a piston disposed in the compression chamber and adapted to compress the refrigerant. The drive unit, that produces a driving force to reciprocate the piston inside the compression chamber, includes a stator affixed in the lower region of the hermetic casing, and a rotor provided in the stator by a distance and adapted to electromagnetically interact with the stator.
The rotor has a rotary shaft press-fitted through the center thereof and adapted to rotate simultaneously with the rotor. As a rotating force of the rotary shaft is transmitted to the piston, the piston reciprocates inside the compression chamber, thereby compressing the refrigerant.
Conventionally, the compressor further comprises a frame unit provided between the cylinder block of the compressing unit and the stator of the drive unit. The frame unit includes a plate-shaped frame body coupled at an upper surface thereof to the cylinder block, a cylindrical bearing member extending downward from a lower surface of the frame body by a predetermined length and adapted to rotatably support an upper portion of the rotary shaft close to the compressing unit, the upper portion of the rotary shaft being guided through the frame unit, and a plurality of cylindrical stator supporting poles extending downward from the outer periphery of the lower surface of the frame body toward an upper surface of the stator and adapted to be supported between the frame body and the upper surface of the stator. For the manufacture of the frame unit configured as stated above, it is first integrally cast so that the frame body, bearing member and respective stator supporting poles are roughly formed, and then the respective members of the frame unit are accurately processed to yield a desired final shape via cutting, drilling, etc.
However, the above described frame unit, provided in the conventional compressor, is expensive and difficult to manufacture because it has to be cast by making use of a complicated mold required to integrally cast the frame body, bearing member and stator supporting members. Further, the above mentioned additional processes, such as cutting, drilling, etc., complicates the overall manufacturing process of the frame unit, resulting in reduced productivity thereof.